The first novel in Laurie King's riveting and intelligent series featuring Sherlock Holmes and his partner in sleuthing, Mary Russell.
This is a brilliantly inventive novel that tells the story of Mary Russell, a young girl, who, in 1914, meets a retired beekeeper on the Sussex Downs. His name is Sherlock Holmes, and smug misogynist though he may be, the Great Detective is no fool and can spot a fellow intellect even in a fifteen-year-old woman.
He takes Mary on as his apprentice, and she hones her budding detective skills on a number of small local cases, but then the sky opens on them, and they find themselves the targets of a slippery, murderous and apparently all-knowing adversary. Together they devise a plan to trap their enemy - a plan that may save their lives, but may also kill their relationship . . .
